Lives of more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims in overcrowded, dirty camps at risk as aid agencies forced to flee western Burma.

Internally displaced Muslims sit inside their tent at a camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, in Burma's Rakhine state, on April 1. Aid groups warn the lives of more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims are at risk.

By:Robin McDowellThe Associated Press, Published on Tue Apr 01 2014

RANGOON, BURMA—International relief organizations forced to flee western Burma say it will be almost impossible to return without strong diplomatic pressure on the government to depoliticize the distribution of aid. Until then, they say, the lives of more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims in overcrowded, dirty camps will be at even greater risk.

In the next two weeks, food stocks will run out and at least 20,000 people will be without clean water, according to humanitarian aid workers who gathered in Rangoon on Monday to discuss the spiralling crisis.

The heath situation is even more dire, they said, with almost no life-saving services such as emergency hospital referrals.

“It’s not that we don’t want to go back, we can’t,” said one of the aid workers, who asked not to be identified because he was worried about the safety of the local staff who stayed in Rakhine state.

Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, only recently emerged from a half-century of brutal military rule. Nascent democratic reforms under a nominally civilian government have generated optimism and brought billions of dollars from international donors — but a violent strain of religious extremism is threatening the progress.

In the past two years, Buddhist mobs torched and pillaged Muslim neighbourhoods, killing up to 280 people and forcing another 140,000 from their homes, most of them Rohingya on the outskirts of Rakhine’s state capital, Sittwe.

The delivery of food, water and medical care to camps since then has been highly politicized.

Buddhist extremists see humanitarian aid groups, and those who assist them, as a lifeline for the long-persecuted religious minority. They have threatened staff and staged frequent protests.

As pressure on aid groups mounted, the government in February expelled Médecins sans Frontières from Rakhine, where it was by far the biggest health-care provider, in part because it hired Rohingya.

Last week, hundreds of Buddhists spent two days attacking the offices and residences of UN agencies, OXFAM, Save the Children, Solidarities International and others in Sittwe, forcing aid groups to evacuate almost 700 staff statewide.

The United Nations sent a high-level delegation to Sittwe on Tuesday to meet with senior officials from the central and state government to work on a short-term solution, including delivering water to the Pauk Taw camp and the remaining rations from the World Food Program warehouse.

Aid groups urged the U.S., European Union and other members of the international community to step up the pressure.

“The diplomatic community — and the government — needs to understand, unless they can shift this situation, the fate of those in the camps will be on their shoulders,” they said.